Beijing customers eagerly queued up to buy new Huawei Pura 70 series smartphones on April 18, 2024, at the flagship store of the Shenzhen-based company. The excitement was palpable as Huawei made a roaring comeback in China and was closing in on Apple in the world’s largest smartphone market.
According to Counterpoint Research, Huawei saw a remarkable 70% surge in smartphone sales in China during the first quarter of 2024, while Apple experienced a decline of over 19%. Ivan Lam, a senior research analyst at Counterpoint, pointed out that Apple’s sales were subdued due to Huawei’s resurgence impacting the premium segment.
Having led China’s smartphone market with nearly 20% share last year, Apple had now slipped to the third spot in the first quarter of this year with a market share of 15.7%. In contrast, Huawei’s market share had soared to 15.5% from 9.3% in the previous year.
Huawei created a buzz with its Mate 60 Pro smartphone last year, especially when the US government sought more information about its advanced processor. This raised eyebrows among industry experts, given the restrictions imposed by the US to limit China’s access to foreign chip technology due to national security concerns.
Recent data from IDC indicated that Apple’s global smartphone sales had plummeted by 10% in the first quarter of 2024, largely due to waning momentum in China. With Chinese consumers increasingly turning to local brands over foreign ones like Vivo and Honor who dominated the market despite overall growth of just under 1% in China’s smartphone sales for Q1 this year.